Outline

Objective

Meanwhile neuronavigation is well estaplished but the weak points are now more clear than at introduction. Therefore intra-operative imaging gained an increasing role to overcome these problems. Due to its excellent properties highend sonography is becoming an interesting tool in neurosurgery.

Methods

In a series of 63 cases of intraoperative highend sonography imaging we had 11 cases in which neuronavigation problems had to be compensated. There were 5 females and 6 males, mean age was 33,5 (0,1 - 57) years. Neuronavigation was done with the Zeiss Navigation System and sonography with the Pro Sound 5000 ALOKA machine.

Results

In two cases the navigation system could not be used because of technical problems of hardware. In five cases the operative accuracy was to low to target the leason, and in four cases navigation was displaced by sonography. There were four small cavernomas, one melanoma, two cysts, two slit ventricles and two small astrocytomas. The advantages of the sonography was the real-time use, the online imaging, and the easy handling. The disadvantage was the unusual appearance of the sono images compared to CT or MRT.